The BBC Philharmonic, their Principle Guest Conductor and the premier euphonium player David Childs have been busy in Manchester this week recording a new disc of symphonic euphonium concertos, including entries to the repertoire by Novello composers Edward Gregson and Paul Mealor.

The second of Child’s ‘The Symphonic Euphonium’ CDs will be released later this year on Chandos and also feature the first euphonium recording of the Ralph Vaughan Williams F Minor Tuba Concerto. The classical music news website 4barsrest.com visited the rehearsals to chat with Childs, Gernon and Gregson:

The Euphonium Concerto was commissioned by the Euphonium Foundation UK and was written for, and dedicated to, David Childs. This three-movement work, lasting some 22 minutes, is a truly symphonic work in both its structure and scale. Its three movements, subtitled Dialogues, Song without Words, and A Celtic Bacchanal, explore the full range of the technical, musical, and emotional scope of the euphonium. Gregson has also composed a Brass Band arrangement which, since it's premiere at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music, Tokyo in June of last year, has been toured in Belgium and Austria by the Tredegar Band. They will give the UK premiere of the work at the RNCM Festival of Brass on January 27. The concert will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3 (date TBC).

Mealor's concerto is inspired by a Gaelic poem about lost love, telling the tale of a fisherman and his wife. She accompanies her love to the shores of the sea to wave him off; but tragically he never returns. Each day she returns to the sea and sings to him, but no answer ever comes. In the tradition of Celtic songs it is dark and full of passion and pain. It received its world premiere in July 2017 at St David's Hall, Cardiff, performed by David Childs and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.